February 14, 2018

Off the Top of My Head

Use Paper Ballots for the Next Election

by John Lawrence, February 14, 2018

Worried about Russian hacking? The solution is simple. Just use paper ballots. They are unhackable. Instead what we get from the media and the government is a lot of commiseration about the supposed fact that the Russians are planning to discombobulate our next election. All of this should be a nonissue. Disconnecting from the internet would be the smartest thing any of these nincompoops in power have done in quite some time.

Then are you worried that Russia might use Facebook and Twitter to spread alt facts and alt news. As if there weren't enough Americans already doing the same. Free speech, baby. Oh, are only Americans allowed free speech. Every one else keep you mouth shut. The things is that the authorities don't want to allow free speech. Speech coming from Russia is by definition propaganda. Speech not agreeing with the official Trumpian, Republican party line is by definition propaganda.

The American people have to be smart enough and savvy enough to take everything they read or see with a grain of salt whether it's a tweet from Trump of Vladimir Putin or one of Putin's operatives. After all the Russians are allowed to have their own perspective as are the Brits as are the Germans etc etc.Not everyone agrees with the US party line. In fact fewer and fewer people around the world are agreeing with it, and they are finding ways to detach themselves from US influence.

Among many other needed measures promoted by nonprofit and nonpartisan Verified Voting, Congress should require standardized voting systems around the nation. It should insist on rock-solid security, augmented by frequent audits of hardware and software. Recounts should be performed routinely and randomly to ensure that verified-voting systems work as designed. The paper ballot generated by the machine should be the official ballot.

What Congress should emphatically not do is allow or encourage online voting. The sorry state of cybersecurity in general makes clear how foolhardy it would be to go anywhere near widespread “Internet voting” in the foreseeable future.

So if there is no online voting, how is the American voting system hackable by the Russians?

Comments

Off the Top of My Head

Use Paper Ballots for the Next Election

by John Lawrence, February 14, 2018

Worried about Russian hacking? The solution is simple. Just use paper ballots. They are unhackable. Instead what we get from the media and the government is a lot of commiseration about the supposed fact that the Russians are planning to discombobulate our next election. All of this should be a nonissue. Disconnecting from the internet would be the smartest thing any of these nincompoops in power have done in quite some time.

Then are you worried that Russia might use Facebook and Twitter to spread alt facts and alt news. As if there weren't enough Americans already doing the same. Free speech, baby. Oh, are only Americans allowed free speech. Every one else keep you mouth shut. The things is that the authorities don't want to allow free speech. Speech coming from Russia is by definition propaganda. Speech not agreeing with the official Trumpian, Republican party line is by definition propaganda.

The American people have to be smart enough and savvy enough to take everything they read or see with a grain of salt whether it's a tweet from Trump of Vladimir Putin or one of Putin's operatives. After all the Russians are allowed to have their own perspective as are the Brits as are the Germans etc etc.Not everyone agrees with the US party line. In fact fewer and fewer people around the world are agreeing with it, and they are finding ways to detach themselves from US influence.

Among many other needed measures promoted by nonprofit and nonpartisan Verified Voting, Congress should require standardized voting systems around the nation. It should insist on rock-solid security, augmented by frequent audits of hardware and software. Recounts should be performed routinely and randomly to ensure that verified-voting systems work as designed. The paper ballot generated by the machine should be the official ballot.

What Congress should emphatically not do is allow or encourage online voting. The sorry state of cybersecurity in general makes clear how foolhardy it would be to go anywhere near widespread “Internet voting” in the foreseeable future.

So if there is no online voting, how is the American voting system hackable by the Russians?